Prayer was never intended to be an abstract occupation, but is the most personal way we relate to God. In Luke 11:1-13, Jesus’s disciples come to Him asking to be taught how to pray. The prayer He teaches them (the ‘Lord’s Prayer’) is addressed to a personal God, our Father. God is not an idea, an entity, a mystery, but is One to whom we can relate using the vocative case (which simply means we are speaking directly to Him, rather than talking about Him.) Most of the verbs in this prayer are in the imperative form (giving commands.) At first glance, this seems rather odd. Who are we to give orders to God when we pray? Yet as we look at this prayer, we see verbs which are directly addressing God (‘give’, ‘forgive’, ‘lead us not’) in terms which are quite unlike the usual ways we approach those in authority over us (where our requests are more obliquely phrased: ‘I wonder if you wouldn’t mind…’, ‘Perhaps you could help me by…‘)

Eugene Peterson says  ‘by using nouns in the vocative and verbs in the imperative, Jesus gets us involved personally in the action of the God who acts personally in our lives. Prayer is action.’ (‘The Word Made Flesh’, P 50) As we approach God as a loving Father (and the parable Jesus goes on to tell His disciples illustrates God’s willingness to give to us and the love He has for us), we don’t have to ‘hedge our bets’ using oblique phrases; we are encouraged to ask Him directly for all we need. This is made explicit in Luke 11:9-10 (‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.‘) The Message version paraphrases this as ‘Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in.‘ Using the imperative can indeed seem presumptuous or even arrogant, but when viewed in the context of a loving relationship, it is not a case of us ordering God about. Rather, it is a case of us being encouraged by God Himself to approach Him directly with confidence, assurance, boldness  (see Heb 4:16), secure enough in our relationship to use language simply. Many of us spend our adult lives obscuring what we mean because we are afraid to say what we really think; we call this being polite, but it usually only results in obfuscation! God encourages us to approach Him with virtually the simplest form of language there is: a direct petition, made directly, not prettified but using the most basic of language.

Help! Save! Protect! Give! Forgive! Rescue! Deliver! These are the verbs we use in prayer. Even the longer phrases in the Lord’s prayer (‘hallowed be Your name’, ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done’) are direct requests. Let’s remember we can approach God directly and personally and that we don’t have to hide our meaning from Him. This section on prayer ends with the words ‘If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!‘ (Luke 11:13) God is more willing to give than we are to receive. He simply invites us to approach Him directly, coming to Him because we recognise our neediness and our inability to meet those needs by ourselves.

We had two birthdays to celebrate tonight!

Dave spoke from Ezekiel 37:1-14 tonight,  a passage commonly known as the ‘Valley of Dry Bones.‘ Quite often, the church is seen as being insignificant and irrelevant, but this is not a new situation; in Ezekiel’s time, Israel was in exile, feeling forsaken and cut off from God and apparently insignificant. How we view situations is not necessarily how God views them, however.

For Ezekiel to see the valley of dry bones must have been distressing; as a priest, he was not allowed to touch the dead, and this valley was so full of bleached, brittle bones that it was obvious that bodies had been abandoned, something which would have been anathema to Jews for whom burial was really valued. Nowadays, we have become inured to the sight of mass bodies killed in war or disasters, but this vision must have underlined the hopelessness of Israel’s situation.

Nonetheless, God’s question ‘can these bones live?’ evoked an answer that implies Ezekiel recognises there is more to this vision than is apparent from natural sight. ‘Sovereign Lord, You alone know’, he says. God’s response must have seemed even stranger: why prophesy to bones which cannot hear? Nonetheless, he obeyed God and spoke to the bones. What he saw next was beyond imagination, but still he needed to prophesy further for breath – life – to enter these bones.

God speaks and breathes life into us (as at creation) and can do the same for the church today. He could act without us, but He wants us to be involved in His work. We may see dry bones (churches that have closed in recent years, lack of spiritual vitality and so on), but God sees more than we do and knows we can be a ‘mighty army.’ We have to speak out what God says, standing on His promises, prophesying as He commands us to, for God’s Word is living and able to bring even the dry bones to life. God moved as Ezekiel did as He was commanded; we need to rise up and believe and see the valley not as one of dry bones but as the valley of potential.

Stephen spoke from Isaiah 60:1-2 this morning at Cherry Tree Court. First of all, he showed us a picture of darkness (not very interesting to look at!), reminding us of what life was like before God created light. When we view earth from space, we can see the countries and continents outlined:

God holds the whole world in His hands, and, as the children’s song reminds us , we are urged to let ‘this little light of mine’ shine, since we are all here to shine for God. A night view of the earth shows us lights shining:

In the same way, we are urged to rise and shine, for our light has come and the glory of the Lord rises on us. Have we turned our lights on? We need to allow God’s light to shine through us so that He can work in our world as only He can. Rather than simply living mundane lives in darkness, our lives can be transformed by God’s glory, allowing us to be filled with vitality and enthusiasm (like effervescent drinks!) God’s vibrancy and life make all the difference to us.

Today’s morning service is at Cherry Tree Court, starting at 10.30 a.m. Come along to bless the residents of this housing scheme and to be part of our work in the community. Cherry Tree Court is situated just off the main road in Highgate (turn down the road marked ‘Saltersbrook.‘)

Don’t forget the church Information Evening on Saturday 28th February, starting at 6 p.m. This is a time for learning more about everything the church is involved in as well as looking ahead to the future, so it’s important that people come along and find out more! We’ll be having coffee and cake after the meeting, which probably won’t be suitable for small children.

The Women’s World Day of Prayer is coming up soon on Friday 6th March. This year, it will be held at St Peter’s Church in Barnburgh and is based on John 13:1-17, a service written by Christian women from the Bahamas. Further details will be available after the planning meeting tomorrow, but it is always good to support this interdenominational event and to participate in prayer for the whole world.

The Salvation Army food bank needs UHT milk and tinned vegetables in particular at the moment, so if you can help with these needs, please bring items to church and we will pass them on.